


Beneath the Wisterias

by WinterMoonlight



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Episode 111, Slight Canon-Compliant, Some AU elements, reflections, slight-Datastormshipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 01:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20024197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterMoonlight/pseuds/WinterMoonlight
Summary: In the wake of Blue Maiden and Zaizen Akira’s defeat, Fujiki Yusaku reflects on how much Ai has changed and whether saving him is even possible now.





	Beneath the Wisterias

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS! I never have and I never will! (And I should have put this before The Meadow but oh well. I'll fix it later.)

**. . .**

**Beneath the Wisterias**

**by**

**Above the Winter Moonlight**

**. . .**

Yusaku wanders beneath the wisterias that drape over the pathway that winds its way through the park. Long purple and violet flowers drape toward the ground, swaying in the slight summer breeze that drifts through them. It’s beautiful and it’s peaceful to walk past them. This has always been one of Yusaku’s favorite places in Den City or, rather, right outside of the city itself.

Normally, the park is filled with many people who enjoy the beauty of the wisterias when they are in full bloom but, today, the park is practically empty. Yusaku doesn’t mind because the lack of people means that he won’t run into anyone and he can be alone with his thoughts.

His thoughts are mostly on what happened only the day before.

The duel between Ai and Blue Maiden and Akira had ended in an unfortunate loss for the Zaizen siblings. Yusaku hadn’t been able to call the winner of that duel because both of them had been doing very well but, at the same time, Ai winning hadn’t been as surprising as one might have thought.

No, what had been really surprising had been the aftermath.

Yusaku clenches his hand as he thinks about the utter shock, grief, and anger that clouded Blue Maiden’s eyes when she was forced to watch her big brother be erased right before her very eyes. They had lost together and yet it had only been Akira who had been erased.

So that Aoi could know the pain of failing to protect the one she loves. At least, that is Ai’s reasoning and it hurts that the partner and—dare he say it?— _friend_ has changed so much that he did something as sadistic as that.

Yusaku knows that Ai is carrying the guilt of not being able to protect his friends but, at the same time, he doesn’t feel like it’s right for Ai to force others to have to experience that same kind of grief, that same kind of pain. It’s almost as if Ai is punishing them and yet Yusaku doesn’t see why when it is none of their faults that the other Ignis are gone.

It’s Lightning’s and Bohman’s.

Yusaku relaxes his hand and tucks them into the pockets of his jacket, his brow furrowing and his lips pulling back in a frown as he wanders down the empty pathway. In spite of what happened the day before, Yusaku can’t find it in himself to see Ai as an enemy. He can’t find it in himself to treat Ai as an enemy.

Ai has been performing so many crimes and that’s why Yusaku made the decision to fight against him, to stop him from performing even more crimes and harming even more people. But Yusaku still doesn’t want to let go of the hope that there is still a chance Ai can be saved, that Ai can be redeemed.

He wants to hold onto that hope, no matter how small it’s gotten after witnessing Ai’s actions the day before, but it seems that the hope is dwindling with each passing day, and with each crime that Ai adds onto his growing list.

He comes to a stop beneath one of the wisterias and stretches out a hand, gently taking one of the long flowers into his hands. Wisterias, ironically enough, are one of his favorite plants. They are always so relaxing to look at and their scent is relaxing.

It reminds Yusaku of the days before the Lost Incident, back when his parents had still been around, back when he had first come to this park when he was a little kid and his parents had told him what these flowers were.

He shakes his head. He doesn’t want to go down memory lane. The last thing he wants to do is think about his parents or anything that may cause him to think about the incident, the incident that is the reason why he alienated his parents and everyone and focused on his revenge.

His revenge.

Yusaku rubs his hand to his temples. “Ai was created from me,” he says quietly, letting go of the flowers and watching as they dance in the gentle breeze. “Is this my fault then? Am I the reason why Ai has changed as much as he has?”

“You should not be blaming yourself for what the Ignis has done, Yusaku.”

Yusaku starts and whirls around, surprised to find the last person he expected to see standing only a few feet behind him. White hair gently tousled by the wind, Kogami Ryoken watches Yusaku with calm ice blue eyes, his arms folded lightly across his chest.

The last time Yusaku saw Ryoken had been the day before, when Ryoken basically told Ai that he no longer had anything holding him back from eliminating him. That, alone, makes Yusaku wonder if Ryoken had started to come around to accepting Ai, even if it had only been a little bit. Something, at the very least, was holding Ryoken back, based on his words, and Yusaku wonders what that is.

He doesn’t ask though.

“What brings you here, Re...Ryoken?” Even if they are alone in the park, Yusaku doesn’t want to risk revealing Revolver’s true identity and he is positive that Ryoken called him by his first name for the same reason.

“I need to clear my head. This is the closest place that I could find that is similar to the meadow I usually go to,” Ryoken says.

The meadow.

Yusaku thinks to his talk with Ryoken in the meadow in Link VRAINS a few weeks before Ai made his reappearance. He muses that this park does have the same feeling that the meadow in Link VRAINS did, except that it’s far more real because it’s not in virtual reality.

“It does have the same feeling,” he says and turns his gaze to the wisterias. “Why do you say that I should not blame myself? Ai was created from me, because of the Lost Incident, so doesn’t that mean that this is my fault?”

“No, it does not,” Ryoken says, unfolding his arms and walking closer. “The Ignis has free will. It chose to become the way it has become and that is, in no way, your fault. You did not force the Ignis to change, it changed on its own. That is what free will does, it allows one the ability to choose which path they want to follow. You have chosen your path and the Ignis has chosen its own.”

“Going on that logic, doesn’t that mean that Ai is far more human than you used to think? Humans are human because of their free will, their right to choose. That is what makes us different from A.I.s or robots. And yet you still see Ai as a threat.”

“Do you not see some humans as threats because of the choices that they make in life? What of the murders who choose to kill? Or the thieves who choose to steal? They all have free will and choose what to do with their lives and that makes them threats. The Ignis is no different in that respect. It’s just a bigger threat because of how much power it has, especially in the network and especially now.”

Yusaku grimaces but knows that Ryoken is right. With both code keys in his hands, Ai has complete control of Sol Technology and there is no telling what the fallout of that will be.

“That is why the Ignis and you are different and you are not to blame for what the Ignis has done,” Ryoken says, stepping to Yusaku’s side and turning his ice-blue gaze to the hanging wisterias. “Don’t blame yourself. This is the Ignis’s fault and you should not burden yourself with the Ignis’s decisions when it is the Ignis who made those decisions, not you. The Ignis is the one who needs to shoulder the burden for the choices that it has made, not you.”

“I know.” Yusaku is silent for a long moment. “That doesn’t change the fact that I want to save him.”

“The Ignis cannot be saved...”

“Is that true? If Ai is more human than A.I. then that means he is just as redeemable as any human, just as redeemable as you are.”

“I am not...”

“Don’t.” Yusaku turns to gaze at the young man whom saved him ten years ago, the young man who had become his voice of hope, the young man that he vowed he would save someday, even if it’s from his own burdens. “You are a good person, deep down. I know that you are. And you are redeemable.”

“You are naive, Yusaku.” Ryoken doesn’t meet his gaze. “I am not a good person.”

“No matter your crimes, you are still a good person. The fact that you are willing to face the consequences of your actions is proof that you are a good person,” Yusaku points out, remembering what Ryoken told him in the meadow in Link VRAINS. “A bad person would have never tried to atone or face the consequences of his decisions.”

“Perhaps but is the Ignis a good person if it does not do the same?”

“Maybe Ai will. Maybe Ai just needs to be reminded of what it means to be a good person. Maybe he just needs to be reminded of who he truly is, and that the grief that he is carrying is not one that he is shouldering alone.”

Ryoken shakes his head. “You heard what it told Blue Maiden, Yusaku. Do you really think you can convince it that you are also carrying the same sadness that it is? It will likely throw the same words it said to Blue Maiden back at you.”

“Maybe,” Yusaku says. “But that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try to get through to him. He’s lonely. I’m sure of that but...if I can remind him that he isn’t truly alone then it may help him. He still has me.”

“And you are still siding with it, even after seeing what it did to Blue Maiden and Zaizen?”

“I know that he has done terrible things, Ryoken, and what he did to the Zaizens is probably the worst thing that he has done but that doesn’t mean that he can’t change back into a better person, that he can’t be redeemed.”

“There may come a point in time, for you, where the Ignis will cross that line where redemption is no longer possible.”

“I am holding onto my hope, Ryoken. I truly believe that Ai can be saved and I will continue to hold onto that hope.”

“Even if it ends up being ripped to shreds?”

“I will hold onto it until I can’t any longer.”

Ryoken lets loose a breath and turns his ice-blue gaze to Yusaku, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “You’re as stubborn as ever,” he says. “I suppose this mean, in spite of your desire to save the Ignis, we are still working together against it.”

“Ryoken, will you, at least, let me try to save Ai?” The question is out of Yusaku’s mouth before he has the chance to reflect on what he’s actually asking the leader of the Knights of Hanoi.

Judging by the way Ryoken’s eyebrows raise, he’s clearly just as surprised by the question as Yusaku is.

“You know...” he begins.

“...that the Ignis are your enemy, I know,” Yusaku says, “but I still believe coexistence is possible. If Ai is like a human because he has free will and the right to choose then doesn’t that mean that coexistence can be possible if Ai is redeemed? You wouldn’t go around eliminating humans who made the wrong choices but still redeemed themselves and turned their lives around, right? So why should you do the same for Ai?”

“I do not believe that the Ignis is redeemable, not after what happened with the Zaizens. For me, the Ignis has already crossed that line where redemption is no longer possible. You may think you can save the Ignis but I do not believe it is possible.”

Yusaku hesitates as he thinks about what Ryoken said to Ai. “Yesterday...after the duel against Ai, you told him that you no longer have any hesitation about eliminating him. You were all determined to eliminate Ai during the Tower of Hanoi incident and yet your words suggest that you were having second thoughts until after Ai’s duel against the Zaizens.”

Ryoken hums. “I suppose I should not be surprised that you caught that,” he says and turns his gaze back to the wisterias.

“Does this have to do with the fight against Lightning?” Yusaku asks, recalling when he first learned about what Ryoken used to do when he was a child. That had been the same time when Ryoken had actually entrusted the war against Lightning and Bohman to Yusaku, and to Ai.

It had also been the first, and one of only _two_ times, that Ryoken actually called Ai by his name, and Yusaku is positive that the second time had only been a fluke.

Ryoken doesn’t respond for a long moment as he walks closer to the wisterias and brushes his fingers through them. “Perhaps...for a moment, I saw...a bit of you within the Ignis,” he says finally, “and I just knew that you two would be able to win because the Ignis was a lot like you. Given that it was modeled after you, I’m not surprised but I suppose I got the chance to actually see how like you the Ignis was while we were working together during the war.”

“That’s what was holding you back?” Yusaku says in surprise.

Ryoken doesn’t respond but there is a faint flush of embarrassment that he seems to be struggling to hide. “It doesn’t matter,” he says. “The Ignis is clearly not you so there is no point in me holding back now.” He doesn’t meet Yusaku’s eyes, instead focusing his attention on the wisterias that dance quietly in front of his eyes.

Yusaku wonders what he’s thinking. His eyes are contemplative and that flush is still on his cheeks, even if it’s slowly fading.

He isn’t the sharpest when it came to the feelings of others and yet that doesn’t mean that he can deny his own feelings. He knows that he cares deeply for Ryoken, for the young man who saved his life and became his voice of hope, for the young man that he truly wanted to save, that he wanted to aid in seizing a new peaceful future.

He wonders if Ryoken feels the same. Is that why he had been holding back?

Yusaku just doesn’t know.

Ryoken shifts uncomfortably. “Anyway,” he says, “I should be heading back. The others...” He trails off and Yusaku winces because both of them had momentarily forgotten that there are no _others_ for Ryoken to go back to.

 _Maybe that’s part of the reason why he came here. It’s not just to clear his head but also to get away from the place that reminds him of the other Knights,_ Yusaku thinks, recalling with no shortage of regret that Ryoken had lost every single one of his followers. Faust. Baira. Genome. Even _Spectre._

He’s completely alone.

Yusaku finds himself moving forward and, before Ryoken can react, he has his arms wrapped around the white-haired young man, resting his head on his shoulder.

Ryoken goes stiff. “Yusaku...” he begins.

“I’m sorry,” Yusaku murmurs.

“What…?”

“For your Knights. Faust, Baira, Genome, Spectre. All of them. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not as if it was your fault.”

“Even so, I still am sorry for your loss.” No one knows if the consciousness that Ai erased would ever return but Yusaku hopes that it’s possible, not just for Ryoken’s sake but for Aoi’s as well.

Ryoken lets loose a breath but doesn’t try to push Yusaku away or break free. “They knew the risks,” he says finally, his voice just as much a mask as his eyes but Yusaku is sure he ears a twinge of pain in his voice.

“I don’t want Ai to hurt anyone else.” Yusaku turns his gaze to the wisterias. “I want that bright, peaceful future for all of us to seize, not just you or Aoi or Takeru or Kusanagi but Ai as well. I believe that we all can seize that future, Ryoken, even you, no matter the consequences for what you have done.”

“Such wishful thinking.”

“And yet you would like for the same thing to happen. Even if it is wishful thinking, that doesn’t mean that you have to let go of that dream, that hope.”

“I prefer to think realistically.”

Yusaku lifts his head, gazing at the profile of Ryoken’s face. “And I believe that this dream can be made real.”

Ryoken turns his head and Yusaku feels his cheeks heat up at how close his face is to Ryoken’s. “You are rather idealistic, Yusaku,” he says, his warm breath brushing against Yusaku’s lips, and causing the flush to deepen. “And you are still stubborn. Perhaps though...perhaps such a dream is possible, for you anyway.”

“No, for both of us,” Yusaku says firmly. “I believe it. I wish you would to. No matter how realistic you want to see things, you shouldn’t stop yourself from holding onto hope and onto your dream.”

“You could be a motivational speaker if you wanted to be,” Ryoken muses, his ice-blue eyes fixing on Yusaku’s. Either he doesn’t notice how close they are or he doesn’t care. Yusaku can’t seem to stop the heat that is rising to his cheeks though.

Granted, the current position that they’re in is really his fault, since he had been the one to instigate the hug.

And yet he doesn’t want to move, and Ryoken doesn’t seem to want to move either since he hasn’t tried to push Yusaku away.

A beep sounds and Yusaku, reluctantly, pulls away enough to pull out his phone, noticing it’s a message from Kusanagi asking where he is. He texts him that he’ll be heading back soon and turns to Ryoken who slips out of his grip while he’s distracted.

“I should get back,” Ryoken says.

 _To an empty house? Or an empty yacht?_ “Come with me,” Yusaku says before he can stop himself.

Ryoken raises an eyebrow.

“To Kusanagi’s food truck,” Yusaku clarifies. “You can get something to eat at the very least before you head back.” _So you don’t have to be alone for that long tonight._

“You do know that Homura doesn’t exactly like me, right?”

“He’s actually spending the day with his friend Kiku,” Yusaku says. “Since he isn’t going back home for a while, Kiku decided to come and visit him. Kusanagi and I both think he needs this, after losing Flame. Either way, he won’t be there and it’s only for lunch.”

“All right.”

Yusaku is a bit surprised, but happy, when Ryoken agrees. He nods once in response and, turning, begins to walk back the way he had come as Ryoken falls into step beside him.

The wisterias continue to sway in the breeze as the two hackers walk beneath them.

**. . .**

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! Another Datastormshipping oneshot (it's only slight but it's more than in my last oneshot).
> 
> I really do love this pairing and I am enjoying exploring the dynamic between them.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this oneshot, which takes place in the same universe as The Meadow and takes place after Episode 111.
> 
> Reviews and kudos are much appreciated.


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